Apple has said it will update, rather than pause, a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that has generated inaccurate news alerts on its latest iPhones.
On Monday, the company admitted there were concerns and announced they are developing a software update. This update aims to make it clearer when notifications are summaries created by the Apple Intelligence system.
The tech giant is under pressure to remove the technology due to its poor performance.
The BBC complained last month after an AI-generated summary of its headline falsely told some readers that Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself.
On Friday, Apple’s AI inaccurately summarised BBC app notifications to claim that Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship hours before it began – and that the Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.
This marks the first time Apple has formally responded to the concerns voiced by the BBC about the errors, which appear as if they are coming from within the organisation’s app.
“These AI summarisations by Apple do not reflect – and in some cases completely contradict – the original BBC content,” the BBC said on Monday.
“It is critical that Apple urgently addresses these issues as the accuracy of our news is essential in maintaining trust.”
“A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary.”
The feature, along with others released as part of its broader suite of AI tools was rolled out in the UK in December. It is only available on its iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, and Pro Max handsets running iOS 18.1 and above, as well as on some iPads and Macs.
Several instances of the technology appearing to interpret messages in a highly blunt, literal way have gone viral on social media.
In November, a ProPublica journalist highlighted erroneous Apple AI summaries of alerts from the New York Times app suggesting it had reported that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested.
The BBC has not been able to independently verify the screenshots, and the New York Times declined to comment.
Reporters Without Borders, an organization representing the rights and interests of journalists, called on Apple to disable the feature in December.
